Hantavirus quarantine lifted on Woodlands home

The Department of State Health Services has lifted a quarantine on a home in The Woodlands where a woman relative of the owner initially tested positive for hantavirus.

Updated: A second test officials thought would confirm a positive diagnosis of deadly hantavirus in a woman who helped clean up a Woodlands home has come back negative, as have tests on two other people involved in the cleanup, officials said Monday afternoon.

The woman was diagnosed with the disease, which is contracted from breathing the airborne virus from the dried urine or feces of certain rodent species, within the last two weeks and had been hospitalized, officials said Friday.

However, the second test - along with tests on two other people who helped clean up a home for a Discovery Channel television show on hoarding, and who asked to be tested - came back negative Monday, said Dr. Mark Escott, deputy local health authority for Montgomery County, at a press conference late Monday afternoon.

“As of five minutes ago, the quarantine on the home has been lifted,” he said.

The home that was being cleaned up, located in the 11000 block of Slash Pines Court in The Woodlands’ Village of Grogan’s Mill, was quarantined Friday, with a Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy stationed outside to keep people away.

Health officials collected samples from the woman initially diagnosed - the daughter of the homeowner - and the two other people Sunday, and the Texas Department of State Health Services used a “more refined” test than the previous one that came back positive, Escott said.

“I don’t know what she has,” he said.

The second test, which confirmed that the first test was a “false positive,” he said, is a “gold standard” test that came back “absolutely negative.”

“It’s absolutely a learning experience,” he said. “People need to be aware of the problems rodents can bring.”

Hantavirus, which has a 38 percent mortality rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is rare; only one case has been found in Texas since 2010 and only 34 have been found since 1995.

Everyone involved in the cleanup has been notified, including everyone with the Discovery Channel on hand to film the cleanup efforts, Escott said. Television crew members had been very proactive and wore protective gear, including respiratory protective gear.

“They’re aware this is a hazard of the job,” he said.

He did not know whether the Discovery Channel would resume filming and continue cleanup of the home for its series, “Hoarding: Buried Alive.”

Thousands of books retrieved from the home had been donated to the Houston Public Library Foundation, but all have been accounted for and were not distributed, HPLF Executive Director Maya Houston said.

The books have been stored in a locked warehouse until health officials can best determine what to do with them, she said.

“We responded extremely quickly,” she said.

However, 8,000 books were sent to Better World Books in Indiana, a book reseller, Escott said. All those books also have been accounted for, and none has been distributed.

Hantavirus can present itself much like the flu, with fever, respiratory symptoms and muscular aches, according to the CDC. There is no vaccine for it, Escott said.

“The woman’s treating physician will look for other causes,” he said. “It’s up to her physician to determine what the cause can be. The house had a large amount of rodent feces; we’re lucky we had a clear episode showing why it could be hantavirus. When people are exposed, they don’t know they have been exposed.

“Hoarding involves lots of intrinsic dangers.”

The house has undergone a significant amount of cleanup, but,” Escott said, “It still needs significant cleanup.”

The hantavirus can live for two to three days on surfaces, according to the CDC. It is not contagious person to person.

The house is no longer the responsibility of Montgomery County for mitigation, but officials will continue to work with the homeowner’s family to help the owner, Escott said.

Ruth Walker, a neighbor of the homeowner, said early Monday afternoon she was concerned for another of her neighbors involved in the home’s cleanup, but not for herself.

“Living in The Woodlands, we live with all kinds of creatures,” she said. “You have to be wise.”

Reached after the announcement that the tests came back negative and the quarantine on the home was lifted, “That’s great news,” Walker said.